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Opening speech for graduation ceremony
Opening speech for graduation ceremony
Welcome speech for graduation ceremony
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In June of 2011, Conan O’Brien gave the commencement address to the 2011 graduating class of Dartmouth College. O’Brien uses humor and anecdotes to deliver a powerful speech which resonated with most viewers. O’Brien also used many literary devices for the graduates to better understand his primary points. Conan O’Brien delivery of his commencement address was effective because of his use of pathos, ethos, and antidotes, which contributed to his fantastic speech.
I found O’ Brien’s speech to be extremely educational as well as entertaining. He used his profession as a comedian to incorporate pathos (humor), which positively affected the graduates. “When I got the call two months ago to be your speaker, I decided to prepare with the same intensity many of you have devoted to an important term paper. So late last night, I began (O’Brien, 2011)”. O’Brien is making a joke, based on the common stereotype that college students procrastinate on papers till the day before the deadline. “Behind me sits a highly admired President of the United States and decorated war hero while I, a cable television talk show host, have been chosen to stand here and impart wisdom. I pray I never witness a more damning example of what is wrong with America today (O’Brien, 2011).” O’Brien regularly uses humbling humor that supports the delivery of his speech. O’ Brien portrays himself as humble because he feels as if he isn’t worthy of giving a commencement speech due former president Bush, a decorated war hero was sitting behind him. O’Brien seems puzzled that they choose a television comedian, over a president and war hero because he is arguably much more qualified and respected. O’ Brien then jokingly states, that there’s a problem with America if the...
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...audience laugh and pay better attention to his primary message. O’Brien is basically conveying to the viewers, that he has been through the same struggles they face everyday.
Overall, O’ Brien did a phenomenal job connecting with his audience. His speech had universal significance because his message was, failure and change will prevail, but you should embrace it and learn from it. This message is important cause failure and change universally affects everyone. O’Brien is giving the audience valuable advice by telling them to embrace their shortcomings and losses. Many people do not know what do when they fail. O’ Brien leads the viewers into comfort by telling them he has once failed before he was successful. O’Brien speech was very effective because of his use of humor and anecdotes, which helped convey his message with his audience.
David McCullough Jr., delivered the commencement at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts on June 1st 2012 to staff, the 2012 graduates, and their family and friends. The speech was straightforward and supplied valuable information for their future. . McCullough’s speech at times felt harsh, offensive, and insulting. His words and examples were given to achieve insight, knowledge, and awareness for each student’s future. The commencement expressed a great deal of achievement, but conveyed that there was more work to be done. His speech was effective and appreciated through humor parallelism, repetition, and anaphora. His point of view has obtained respect and determination by all those that have been challenged and have heard his words.
and set on fire. It is complete rubbish, designed to strengthen his ethos as a comedian and make him the
John F Kennedy delivered one of the finest speeches on January 20, 1961 after being sworn into office. His inauguration speech was so powerful that it captured the entire nations attention, and quotes from it are still remembered by people today. It is one of the finest speeches ever written. It provides a strong appeal to pathos, ethos and logos, and it is because of this that people who never heard the speech can quote lines from it.
Bush opens his speech by acknowledging the events of September 11, and those that lost the lives of loved ones and to those that gave their life trying to save others in the buildings. He appeals to those that remain strong by saying that, “These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong.” His use of pathos helps Bush to calm and control the public in order to keep the country together. This
In today’s society, one of the most natural human traits is selfishness. David Foster Wallace incorporated this idea in his commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005. Wallace aims to persuade his audience that, “the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about.” Although the intended audience of his speech is the graduates and staff, along with their friends and family, the piece has become quite popular since its delivery. Wallace offers, “nothing less than the truth” and captivates the listeners with his complete honestly. His personal tone lets the audience feel like they are a part of the conversation, rather than just receiving it. Wallace successfully conveys his message that society is blind to the world around them through the use of logic, humility and emotional appeals.
In conclusion, this speech was structured beautifully. Its use of figurative and expressive language makes it an unforgettable speech. Kennedy does a great job of using pathos, ethos, and logos to reiterate his commitment to the American public as well as discuss expected changes. Given the state of the world at the time of his inauguration, the decision to rely so heavily on pathos and ethos was a wise one which got the job done. His use of the rhetoric triangle effectively conveys Kennedy’s plan for America to not only her citizens, but to the world.
Humor is an intriguing aspect of our life that makes us happy when we are sad, and keeps us upbeat when with friends. The title that I chose was the Broadway performance from Will Ferrell in Will Ferrell: You 're Welcome America. A Final Night with George W. Bush. Will Ferrell portrays the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, as he reflects on a variety of incidents and occurrences that happened while serving the United States from 2001-2009. The humor speaks primarily to people who are politically savvy and especially know the major points in Bush’s presidency. Ferrell highlights key points such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2000 Presidential election, and the inauguration of President Barack Obama. In “You 're Welcome America,” the target audience is political savvy individuals who are well informed with politics and followed the Bush presidency closely. The humor most associated with this material is stand-up comedy, and irony with a few political jokes smashed in between, with Will Ferrell proving his worth cracking jokes as the wiseass George W. Bush. Overall, I find this comedy to be hilarious, while others struggle with many of the jokes because the audience needs to be “in the know” with
Her slow yet concise way of speaking, coupled with easy to follow transitions allowed for a speech that was enjoyable to listen to. Her use of examples from her personal life allowed her audience to get a picture of who she was if they did not know, and allowed her to better relate to them by provided examples of how she is related to the college they are graduating from. Her reference to many modern political problems allowed her to bring up her important role as an activist and facilitated further understanding from the audience. While some areas of her speech were weak, such as the longer than needed pauses and her lack of consistent eye contact, to a few points where she didn’t speak clearly enough, the overall picture that was her speech was fairly strong. Looking at this speech, I hope to incorporate some aspects that I failed to include in my previous speeches. Some of these include her use of hand gestures to emphasize and exaggerate certain phrases and topics, and her combined use of appeals. While my initial thoughts going in were “This is boring” and “This is too slow”, it evolved into me wanting to hear more, and overall my defeat in the beginning turned into a victory at the
The debate team of Wiley College faced many colleges to be recognized and finally in the end winning a debate against the reigning debating champions, Harvard University. One of the debaters who caught my attention was James Farmer Jr., the youngest on the team that started out as an alternative. James Farmer sought recognition from adults and wanted to show everyone he was capable of debating. James Farmer incorporates a lot of Ethos and Pathos into his speech making, allowing him to leave his audience filled with emotions and in awe. Although James Farmer interested me, especially the way he presented his final speech, James Farmer and I are very different in the way we deliver our speeches.
Beginning a "Commencement speech" is tough, but once Powell gets confidence the words flowed normally. He said that making a Commencement Speech is a real Challenge. commencement speaker always
The fear he brings on by talking about Ebola spreading, the grief brought on by talking of the many murders and awful acts by ISIL terrorists, to the hope he projects be calling for the nations to come together to drive his argument. While some arguments use emotion to deceive readers and keep them from paying attention to the argument, but Obama’s speech does just the opposite. The emotions that are felt bring you closer to his argument and facilitate understanding of what he is saying. Since unfortunately not a great deal of people pay attention to politics, they are not knowledgeable on the issues that have taken place. With the use of emotion, Obama is able to help those understand without them having to know the situation entirely. For example, regarding the ISIL terrorists, Obama states the, “mother, sisters, and daughters have been subjected to rape as a weapon of war. Innocent children have been gunned down.” Now while one may not know the ins and out of all the acts of ISIL, this makes people understand that they are bad and need to be
Obama starts off the address by bringing up his visit of the Andrews Air Force base where he welcomed some of the last troops who served in Iraq. This is important because it appeals to all the veterans and those affected by the war that they understood that the Iraq war was actually ending. “For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq” (Obama). Before Obama’s presidency he stated that he wanted to bring home the troops and with that statement he proved that he actually accomplished this within his term. He continues to praise the military on their efforts overseas. “We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the world” (Obama). He continues to express his gratitude for the American troops for...
Eidenmuller, Michael E. Great Speeches for Better Speaking: Listen and Learn From America’s Most Memorable Speeches. New York: Mcgraw Hill, 2008. Google Books. Web. 4 September 2010.
Bush’s method of topic by topic argument along with many emotional appeals was a rather effective way of winning the audience’s support. By appealing to the emotions of the audience Bush was able to give the audience issues they could relate to as well as issues they would feel strongly about. With an emotionally involved audience Bush was able to gather a great number of supporters of his party, just as he intended in his original purpose. The further reference to the character of the people involved in the issues really paid off by drawing the crowd closer to the people working for them. With the topical structure and the appeals used, the speech was a very effective tool in gaining support for the Republican Party from the northern Arizonan audience.
I consider Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005 to be one of the most effective speeches. He uses mechanics of speech to craft a well-rounded speech that is crowned by his use of rhetorical devices. Jobs gives relevant and fundamental knowledge of his life and experiences with his rhetorical approach. In his speech to the Stanford’s graduation class, he tells different stories of love, loss, discovery and difficulty he faced in his life to encourage new graduates as they continue to mature in life. He encourages students to pursue their dreams and not be discouraged by failures they might experience in life.